Spike Lee Revises ‘Essential’ Films List to Include 7 By Women

Spike Lee realizes he made a few omissions when he posted his "Essential List of Films for Filmmakers": It didn't contain any films directed by women.

He's improved the situation, adding seven films to the list, which now contains 94 films in all.

One omission was apparently especially egregious: Italian filmmaker Lena Wertmuller went from not appearing on the list at all to appearing on it four times — more than any other director, including Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Federico Fellini, and Stanley Kubrick, who appear three times each.

Lee notes in his revised list that "many of you informed me" about the omission of female directors.

"Thank you for that coat pulling," he wrote.

Lee, who is also teaching at New York University, posted the list as part of the successful Kickstarter campaign for his next film, which he's described as being about “Human beings who are addicted to Blood. Funny, Sexy and Bloody. A new kind of love story (and not a remake of "Blacula").”

As Indiewire noted, woman still directed only 6.44 percent of the films on Lee's list. Nine percent of the top 250 movies at the domestic box office last year came from female directors, and that number has historically been much lower.